Thursday, June 17, 2010

A hallmark tactic of religious conservative groups is constantly complaining that they are unfairly labeled as "bigots" simply because they are supposedly defending the so-called normal time-honored definitions of morality, family, and decency.

After a good look at one organization - the Family Research Council - and its comments against the The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C., one has to wonder just what values are being defended.

The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C. has unveiled its "Agenda: 2010" which is "designed for educating D.C. candidates for Mayor and D.C. Council on LGBT issues" while also serving as "a resource for journalists, activists, and the general public."

Now to the Family Research Council, this a parlor trick, another plan for the lgbt community to "destroy" America:

Local groups will try to elect more homosexuals to places of power, push in-school gay-straight alliances, support D.C. sex-oriented businesses, defend adult entertainment, grant special perks to cross-dressing prisoners, force same-sex adoption, and legalize sex trafficking. Lots of people in this country mistakenly believe that this community will be satisfied when it redefines marriage. That's not the case. Homosexuals and transgenders won't be happy until they sever every moral underpinning in America. This has never been about "acceptance" or "equality" but about a devastating strategy meant to destroy innocence, the family, local communities, public health, and parental authority.

The group even added a "cute graphic" to emphasize the point.

Now just to be clear, FRC is claiming that any action of the lgbt community is suspect because we are not human beings but willing props in some plot overturn American values.

This means:

a child wanting to get through the school day without being beaten up for being an lgbt,

or an lgbt couple wanting to extend their homes to a child who needs love,

or an lgbt couple merely seeking to preserve dignity and the right to protect each other's interests in the event of one's death are all pieces of a puzzle hatched by the fevered imagination of an international cartel led by some bald man hidden in the shadows who can only be identified by his soft hands which he uses to stroke his pet Persian cat.

The implication would be hilarious if FRC and those who support the group didn't believe this drivel.

One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

This describes many religious right groups such as the Family Research Council. It's not enough for them to oppose homosexuality per se. They have to take it a step further. To them, we are not people. We are not human beings with feelings and emotions. By their very deeds and actions, they strip us of our humanity.

Unfortunately for the sake of parity and phony objectivity, some - including members of the lgbt community - allow religious right groups an unfair free pass by way of the excuse that their tactics and claims are mere expressions of their faith.

And then folks claim that the lgbt community guilty of the same type of actions.

I think that's unfair. Lgbts are not the ones who distort science to make some claim that Christianity is a "bad lifestyle."

Nor do we chalk all of the actions of religious right groups as an attempt to steadily trap us in a second class style of living, although if we did, we would have more than enough evidence to do so.

We call groups like the Family Research Council bigots because that is simply what they are.

The real question should be if these groups consider themselves moral and Christian, how can they justify their lies and attempts to stigmatize the lgbt community?

Thousands of citizens of the West African nation of Ghana attended a rally on Friday which aimed to stamp out emerging gay communities in its biggest cities.

An estimated 3,000 young people in the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis marched in the rain, many wielding placards adorned with anti-gay slogans.

Local news website GhanaWeb reports that the protest was organized by the region’s Muslim community, following reports that gay parties and same-sex marriages had been organized recently in the suburbs.

The protest’s organisers are calling on the government to criminalise homosexuality, calling it an ‘ungodly act’.

“Ghana will suffer more than the experience of Sodom and Gomorrah, should we embrace this practice in this country,” said the rally’s leader Saeed Hamid.

It gets worse. According to the Ghana Web article, Hamid also had this to say:

He said most of the young boys involved in the practise are having health problems and are wearing pampers.

"How would you feel, if someone puts his penis into your anus?" He queried.

Talk about behind the times. Homophobes in the United States stopped linking us to diapers over 30 years ago.

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 46-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.